Life: next season

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    José María Calvo was a 21-year-old bodybuilder who was hit by a car and left a paraplegic. Today, he is 46 years old and dreams of being the world champion of handbike (adapted cycling). “I am not disabled. I have other capacities ”, he assures. 

    Since he was 21 years old, he has not walked again. He is 46 but it is impossible for the drama to govern this conversation destined to make us better people or, at least, to discover a man like José María Calvo who that day bm pharmaceuticals india usa online bodybuilding, "crossing a zebra crossing" saw a Volkswagen Santana run over his life. He will not forget the car or the driver, who said he had not seen him. The reflection of the sun prevented him, but he did quickly realize that "he would never walk again." He did not lose consciousness at any time. He was 21 years old.

    I worked in an earthmoving company under the command of an excavator, "in the same company where my son works now, who was 3 years old then and is 27 today." He had been married for two years since his life then went into fast motion. “I got married at 18 years old. On January 1 I turned 18 and on the 27th of that same month, I got married. ” Perhaps because his life was out of the ordinary very soon. "At the age of 10, I lost my mother in a traffic accident."At 14, “as soon as I finished eighth grade”, he stopped studying “because you had to help out at home” for his father, who was a farmer. But those were the demands of a large family of eight siblings in which José María, the seventh of those eight siblings, will never stop remembering his mother, “as a supermom until that accident took her away. At that time there was not so much emphasis on wearing a seat belt. The door of the van was not closed properly, he leaned against it and when he fell, he hit his head on the road, which was fatal. And he left". The woman was 36 years old.

     


     

    He has discovered his sixth sense in sports

    However, the memory today is unbeatable. "I was old enough to remember," explains José María, who works six days a week, morning and afternoon, at a ONCE post in Ejea de Los Caballeros "selling coupons" which was never the illusion of his life. But still, he claims to be "a happy man" who has discovered his sixth sense in sports. “ Until the accident, I was doing bodybuilding. I liked. I was struck by the cult of the body and in bodybuilding, I discovered a discipline in sports and food.  The same discipline with which he entered the hospital as soon as he suffered the accident. “I saw what had happened to me and from the first moment I said that I did not want this, that had happened to me, to change the life of anyone in my family. I set myself the challenge of leaving the hospital as soon as possible, where they told me that they were not going to discharge me until I was able to fend for myself, whether it was to make my bed, to prepare food, to get dressed or to wash dishes, for whatever it was. The challenge was actually immense, but it had to be accepted. Life had come this way and I saw no point in going around protesting, to say this is not fair or 'I do not deserve this' ”. He was 21 years old.

     

    Adversity dared not overcome him. “I will always remember that I entered the Miguel Servet hospital in Zaragoza on August 28 and had already been discharged at Christmas, because I did not understand it otherwise. I had to fight for it. I faced those deadlines. He had to believe in me. I remember when I first sat in the wheelchair I went to see other hospital patients who were in my condition. They were even younger than me, who had been there for years. From my ignorance or my daring I wanted to make them see: 'don't you realize that every day we spend in the hospital we are wasting time?' ”Recalls José María, who was then the owner of the same response today. "I was dedicated to tell them: 'the sooner we return home the sooner we can lead a normal life.'" He was 21 years old and the same willpower with which he replied to the doctors that day that they discussed the possibility of going to the hospital for paraplegics in Toledo to recover: "I will not go,

    The compensation allowed him to buy and adapt his house, "in which the doors are wider than normal." You had to think about the wheelchair because that chair is your legs since that zebra crossing changed everything. The driver, who was an older man, has already died, but José María is still here. "To you to come", he just said to a client, who thanks her after paying her the ONCE coupon. “At first, it was difficult for me to adapt to dealing with the public, but it has been eight years now. I have known how to find the psychologist that we all have within us ”. The reward is this conversation of a man, who does not like to be called "disabled. I prefer that they say that I have or that we have other capacities because it is so. Everyone can do it. You have to look for other possibilities that are within you. If you try you can find them. Of course, I would give anything to walk again. But I don't know if that day will come. I don't know if the investigations will advance to that extreme. Meanwhile, I have to think about what I have and I like what I have: my house, my wife who is an angel, my life. Even my age still empowers me to dream. " He's 46.

    “I admit that it is already an age, but the handbike world champion is 50 years old. I know I play against the clock but we all have the right to dream. There are people who have to wait longer to fulfill their dreams, "he insists, today, non-negotiable without the sport that has allowed him to be fourth in Spain and take a plane for the first time in his life, no less than Johannesburg, to compete in the world championship in South Africa, where he was eighth classified. "I came to the sport out of curiosity. Not to escape anything. I didn't need it, because I have a very hard head ”. This was his declaration of intent from the first minute. "I always remember that in the hospital they put me a psychologist to see how my head was and, two days later, he himself told me: 'don't come back anymore because you don't need it'". He was 21 years old.

    25 years later, he trains six days a week at noon. "I take advantage of lunchtime, rest at work." Today he does cycling, but he started in athletics, “where I did speed, 100, 200 and 400 meters. He had a lot of strength. I came from bodybuilding and I became a bronze medal in the Spanish championship. But I realized that there was hardly any evidence here and to compete I had to go abroad. And, although I still do races like Behobia, it was not the most optimal plan. So I was encouraged by the bicycle (handbike) that has not only changed my life. My physique has also changed. I have gone from weighing 90 to 69 kilos ”. A new adventure, "Where my limit is yet to be discovered and that is exciting. I really appreciate this opportunity: cycling is very engaging. Every time I see that I can endure more and that I can go faster. I had to lose my fear of the road. I knew how to do it ”, he insists today, without needing to reproach life for anything. Not even that zebra crossing he goes through often. But memory never acted like a nightmare. Neither today. He is 46 years old and the strongest proof is in his language, a weapon of mass destruction in the face of difficulty. An example of life.